The real stories from inside the F1 paddock

More shuffling of engineers?

The speculation regarding Paddy Lowe’s departure possible departure from McLaren in order to join Mercedes has started the ball rolling. It is too late now for the changes to have any influence on the 2013 cars. These are being built and will start running in the next couple of weeks. This is traditionally the time that engineers move on. There follows a period in May-June when there is more movement depending on the quality of the cars that each team has. Movement at this time of year is generally by choice, in May and June it is usually because an engineer has been shown the door. The preparations for 2014 are more important than in most years because of a change in the regulations which will offer a great opportunity for a new pecking order to be established in F1.

Formula 1 teams tend to go for the best engineers available at the moment they are needed. To get an idea of the men in demand one needs only to look at the results from last year. Adrian Newey is the top of the ladder and he seems to be happily ensconced at Red Bull Racing, and seems to be unavailable for other teams. However Italian media reports that Christian Horner was spotted recently in Maranello and it is known that Horner and Newey have a deal between them so that they will work together. Thus it is conceivable that Ferrari was sounding out Horner about hiring the pair of them at some point in the future. Newey has often said that he does not want to move to Italy because of his family in England. He has four children, but only one is still of school age and thus a move outside the UK is more likely now than it has been.

If one assumes that Newey is happy to stay where he is, the next man on the pecking order would logically be Pat Fry of Ferrari, but he has only been in charge at Maranello since May 2011 and thus he is still building the team he wants and fixing problems that are left over from previous engineering teams so he is not likely to move and unlikely to be pushed out (unless Newey is available).

Using the Constructors’ Championship of 2012 as the guide, the next in line would be Paddy Lowe at McLaren, which explains why he has been courted first by Williams and then by Mercedes. Lowe has been at McLaren for nearly 20 years and may feel that he would like a little more recognition for his work, as McLaren tends to emphasise its collective ability rather than making stars of its designers. There is a great opportunity for someone to become a big star at Williams and Lowe started his career there and so will no doubt have some fond memories of the team.

The next name on the list would be James Allison at Lotus F1 Team. He started his career at Enstone back in 1991 and became chief aerodynamicist there in 1997. He was lured away to Ferrari on a five year deal between 2000 and 2004 but returned to the team in 2005 and has been there ever since. He has stuck with the team through the difficult times, despite offers from other teams because he believes in honouring contracts. He has already experienced Ferrari and so the logical destination for him would be McLaren, although he might not find the corporate style there entirely to his taste. If, however, his contract is coming to an end, then he could be a free agent and be open to offers. There are whispers that he could be may be on his way to McLaren to replace Lowe, which would definitely be a step up the ladder, although he might argue that he would rather climb to the top with the Enstone team. The key question, therefore, is whether he is confident in the owners giving him what he needs to do the job properly. It should be pointed out that the rumours might also be designed to destabilise the team at a time when it is in negotiation for big sponsorships and when there are people out there who would like to acquire it from the current owners.

As with all things in F1 these things are difficult to fathom unless someone is willing to talk openly.

My first reaction to the Horner and Newey to Ferrari story this morning, was that it was simply put out there to destabilise. It seems like an odd one, whilst I have no doubt Christian and Adrian are good friends I’m not sure why they would be seen as a package. Adrian had success in the sport long before Christian came along. The use of the name of the HR manager to add credence to the story was a nice touch! I wonder which team would feel more ill at ease with such a story? There is an argument for both, which begs the question why would either side do it? is it more likely another team, e.g. Mercedes or Mclaren might “leak” such a story?

In the same regard that Red Bull use Toro Rosso as a training ground for drivers my feeling is they are using to the team for James Key to prove his worth, with the hope that he will step up to RBR when Newey either moves on or retires.

From the teams’ point of view, it depends on the type of Technical Director/CTO/Grand Wizard they need. Most of these guys (Paddy Lowe and Pat Fry) are I think, more in the Ross Brawn mould, technical managers, who organise the design team and set priorities.

I don’t know James Allison, perhaps he’s more hands-on Aerodynamics-led type of TD. If you want to catch Red Bull, perhaps the other teams think the need Newy, or Newey-like TD’s. Trouble is that there aren’t any really Newey-like Senior guys any more.

Secondly, it’s worth considering what the top guys want from the job. Do they want complete technical freedom (at the cost of working for a smaller, lower budget team) or do they want to go to the really well-resourced big teams, with all the constraints and politics that involves?

Adrian Newey takes a lead on the direction of the cars and works well with the drivers to give them what they want, but I don’t think enough credit is given to Rob Marshall and Peter Prodromou, who work the engineering and aerodynamic sides respectively.

Joe,
Is anything happening at Williams today? A media briefing or what not?
when i drove past this morning there were a lot more cars parked at the factory than normal. they were spilling out into the overflow lane.

For all the comments by some about how many senior (mainly aerodynamics) staff Brackley have hired, I think it’s often overlooked low many senior aerodynamics guys Ferrari have hired over the last year.

Just the other day, they announced Geoff Willis is spearheading the 2014 car whilst Costa is running the 2013 program, so my guess is if the 2013 car under-performs to the level of the 2012 car, Costa will be shown the door first, especially as he arrived at Mercedes following he penning of a few poor Ferraris.

Perhaps we’re looking at this the wrong way. You’ve got a big budget a la Mercedes but poor results. You can either hire 1 chief designer and a team for him and hope he beats the other designers and their teams…

Or, you can hire *all* the designers and leave all the other teams with no one.

Thus you end up with the best car by default!😉

Loving the blog, Joe. Been reading daily for a few seasons after seeing a link to you from the BBC site.

Can we assume from all these stories about engineers that McLaren is like a spring of them for other top F1 teams? Just look how many of McLaren’s men were lured by Red Bull, Ferrari and now Mercedes is hunting in Woking. One would say that MTC is a perfect place to gain knowledge and expertise, am I right?

Who is the next up and coming Adrian Newey? James Key did a good job in his short time at Sauber, Toro Rosso seemed like a lateral move so I keep expecting to see him pop up in a higher profile team. What do you think?

There aren’t any. Adrian Newey is looking like the last of a dying bread of aeronautical engineers who want to design fast cars using a pen and some paper.

All upcoming prospects will be more likely to be committee designers who learnt using CFD and more up-to-date tools telling them what to expect, rather than relying on a knowledge of how aero actually works..

Joe – Thanks for your timely and excellent article. I have long been asking for someone to do a blog post on those in the garages making a difference. Everyone knows the stories of the drivers, yet the engineers (other than Newey Snr) don’t seem to get much credit. It would be excellent to see additional blog posts going into who else in the paddock you rate as making a difference to the performance of the teams.